Skip to main content
Press Release

Fairbanks Sex Offender Sentenced for Receipt of Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Alaska

Fairbanks, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced today that Tommy Hanson, 54, of Fairbanks, was sentenced on Friday, Feb 2, 2018, to serve 20 years in prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, for the receipt of child pornography.  In November 2017, a federal jury found Hanson guilty after a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline.  

According to evidence presented at trial, in 2007, Hanson pled guilty to the possession of child pornography and had been sentenced to eight years in prison.  In that case, Hanson admitted to the use of newsgroup binaries to receive thousands of images of depicting child sexual exploitation, and then backing those images up to CD-ROMS. 

Following his release from prison in 2012, Hanson was subjected to a term of supervised release.  As a condition of his release, Hanson was not to possess computers without the approval of the probation office, and if found in possession of any computers, the devices were subject to search.

United States Probation Officers searched Hanson’s home in North Pole, Alaska, on Oct. 12, 2016.  During the search, the probation officers found Hanson in possession of an unauthorized computer and an external hard drive.  A forensic search of the computer and hard drive by the FBI revealed thousands of images of child pornography that Hanson had downloaded between 2012 and 2016 using internet newsgroups, after his release in the prior case.  The FBI discovered additional forensic evidence linking Hanson to the computer and external hard drive, such as chat logs.  In the chat logs, Hanson told a friend that he was not allowed to have the computer but that he was not concerned about being searched by the “feds” given the remote location of his home. 

The United States Probation Office and the FBI conducted the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Alexander and Kyle Reardon prosecuted the case.

This prosecution is part of the Department of Justice ongoing Project Safe Child (PSC) initiative. In May 2006, DOJ launched PSC, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices, PSC combines federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, identify and rescue victims and to educate the public about safe Internet use, thereby reducing the risk that children might fall prey to online sexual predators. For more information about PSC, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.

Updated February 5, 2018

Topic
Project Safe Childhood
Component